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Bay State
Countess
Backer of
Wall
By WILLIAM A. DAVIS
Staff
George Wallace is billed
the presidential candidate
of "The Folks'' — blue collar
workers and lower middle
eltas homeowners who feel
threatened by social change.
But one of his biggest supporters in Massachusetts is
from the top rung of the soda! ladder. She is s North
Shore women with an ancient Italian title, an old
New England fortune — and
a long history of supporting
extremist right wing causes.
The Countess Rosalind
Wood Guardabassi of Beverly was one of Wallace's
early Bay State backers and
reportedly, has contributed
more than $10,000 to his
campaign.
Now in her late 70's, the
countess Is the daughter of
William Madison Wood,
founder of the American
Woolen Co. Her husband.
Count Francesco Maria Guardabassi, an Italian artist
and opera singer, died in
1852 at the couple's Palm
Beach home.
Although she normally
shuns notoriety, the countess
has opened her rambling
Victorian frame house for
Wollace rallies and has
taken out ads in North
Shore newspapers In his
behalf.
DISLIKES PRESS
Her home, The Old Fort,
located on a hilltop in the
exclusive Prides Crossing
section of Beverly. In 1963 it
ms the scene of a meeting
to raise funds for Maj Gen
Edwin Walker.
According to Sol Kolack.
New England regional director of the Anti-Defamation
League of B'nai Brith, the
countess in the last seven
years has contributed almost
$10,000 to the Christian Nationalist ' Crusade headed
by Gerald L. K. Smith. The
league considers Smith's organization to be anti-semitic.
Kolack said the countess
has also contributed financially to the National States
Rights Party. He said this
was a racist group which operates primarily in the
Srtiith.
Boston, Mass. Sunday Globe
October 1968
Gordon Hall, the Boston-
based authority on extremist
groups, said that In his
opinion the National States
Rights Party is "a terrorist
organisation."
The countess' contribu-
tolons were listed by Smith
and the National States
Right Party in financial
statements they filed in
Wcshinston in accordance
with the Federal corrupt
Practices Act. Kolack said.
The countess rarely gives
interviews and dislikes
newspapers. 'They are clean
es, dirt, untruthful, and rags.
All they do is lie. They
ought to be put out of business," she has been quoted
as saying.
She did submit to a brief
Interview in July, at the
start of the signature drive
to get Wallace on the Massachusetts ballot
The countess was reported
to hBve said then of the for-
ener Alabama governor: He
came up from the sod just
like Abraham Lincoln. He's
red blooded, true blue, and
wants to abolish all the
Communistic influences like
the Federal Reserve."
She is a friend of John
Birch Society head Robert
Welch of Belmont and regularly attends the society's
God, Home and
Country" rallies. However,
according to Welch and one
of his key aides. Col Laurence Bunker of Wellesley,
she hao never been a member of the society.
Bunker, a former aide to
Gen Douglas MacArthur,
heads the 14-membcr alato
of electors pledged to Wal-
laeo — 11' of whom have
been Identified as Birchers.
In addition to taking out
cds for Wallace the countess
ln*recent months has written
letters to her local newspaper airing her views on Wallace and • "the leprous
plojne" of Socialism.
The Fabian Socialists
brought destruction to New
England," she wrote, "first
moral corruption and then
mnterial corruption is to
follow."
OLD FORT
For many years, the
countess lived part of tho
time on her husband's ancestral estate in Perugia, Italy.
She now spends most of
the year at her Prides Crossing home.
The ' Old Fort Is pretty
much the sort of house you
would expect a conservative
old lady of substantial
means to -have. Dark wood
paneling, gilt-framed oil
paintings, heavy leather furniture and antique peacock
chairs.
A small reception room
holds only two clues that the
countess is perhaps not en
ordinary lady: a small end-
table Is covered with the literature of Wallace's American Independent Party
and from a balcony, there
hang two American flags.

User has an obligation to determine copyright or other use restrictions prior to publication or distribution. Please contact the archives at reference@ajhsboston.org or 617-226-1245 for more information.

User has an obligation to determine copyright or other use restrictions prior to publication or distribution. Please contact the archives at reference@ajhsboston.org or 617-226-1245 for more information.

Transcript

Bay State
Countess
Backer of
Wall
By WILLIAM A. DAVIS
Staff
George Wallace is billed
the presidential candidate
of "The Folks'' — blue collar
workers and lower middle
eltas homeowners who feel
threatened by social change.
But one of his biggest supporters in Massachusetts is
from the top rung of the soda! ladder. She is s North
Shore women with an ancient Italian title, an old
New England fortune — and
a long history of supporting
extremist right wing causes.
The Countess Rosalind
Wood Guardabassi of Beverly was one of Wallace's
early Bay State backers and
reportedly, has contributed
more than $10,000 to his
campaign.
Now in her late 70's, the
countess Is the daughter of
William Madison Wood,
founder of the American
Woolen Co. Her husband.
Count Francesco Maria Guardabassi, an Italian artist
and opera singer, died in
1852 at the couple's Palm
Beach home.
Although she normally
shuns notoriety, the countess
has opened her rambling
Victorian frame house for
Wollace rallies and has
taken out ads in North
Shore newspapers In his
behalf.
DISLIKES PRESS
Her home, The Old Fort,
located on a hilltop in the
exclusive Prides Crossing
section of Beverly. In 1963 it
ms the scene of a meeting
to raise funds for Maj Gen
Edwin Walker.
According to Sol Kolack.
New England regional director of the Anti-Defamation
League of B'nai Brith, the
countess in the last seven
years has contributed almost
$10,000 to the Christian Nationalist ' Crusade headed
by Gerald L. K. Smith. The
league considers Smith's organization to be anti-semitic.
Kolack said the countess
has also contributed financially to the National States
Rights Party. He said this
was a racist group which operates primarily in the
Srtiith.
Boston, Mass. Sunday Globe
October 1968
Gordon Hall, the Boston-
based authority on extremist
groups, said that In his
opinion the National States
Rights Party is "a terrorist
organisation."
The countess' contribu-
tolons were listed by Smith
and the National States
Right Party in financial
statements they filed in
Wcshinston in accordance
with the Federal corrupt
Practices Act. Kolack said.
The countess rarely gives
interviews and dislikes
newspapers. 'They are clean
es, dirt, untruthful, and rags.
All they do is lie. They
ought to be put out of business," she has been quoted
as saying.
She did submit to a brief
Interview in July, at the
start of the signature drive
to get Wallace on the Massachusetts ballot
The countess was reported
to hBve said then of the for-
ener Alabama governor: He
came up from the sod just
like Abraham Lincoln. He's
red blooded, true blue, and
wants to abolish all the
Communistic influences like
the Federal Reserve."
She is a friend of John
Birch Society head Robert
Welch of Belmont and regularly attends the society's
God, Home and
Country" rallies. However,
according to Welch and one
of his key aides. Col Laurence Bunker of Wellesley,
she hao never been a member of the society.
Bunker, a former aide to
Gen Douglas MacArthur,
heads the 14-membcr alato
of electors pledged to Wal-
laeo — 11' of whom have
been Identified as Birchers.
In addition to taking out
cds for Wallace the countess
ln*recent months has written
letters to her local newspaper airing her views on Wallace and • "the leprous
plojne" of Socialism.
The Fabian Socialists
brought destruction to New
England," she wrote, "first
moral corruption and then
mnterial corruption is to
follow."
OLD FORT
For many years, the
countess lived part of tho
time on her husband's ancestral estate in Perugia, Italy.
She now spends most of
the year at her Prides Crossing home.
The ' Old Fort Is pretty
much the sort of house you
would expect a conservative
old lady of substantial
means to -have. Dark wood
paneling, gilt-framed oil
paintings, heavy leather furniture and antique peacock
chairs.
A small reception room
holds only two clues that the
countess is perhaps not en
ordinary lady: a small end-
table Is covered with the literature of Wallace's American Independent Party
and from a balcony, there
hang two American flags.